Control
by ismisesteph
Summary: The Dominion has some secret experiments going on, trying to find ways to control mutants. However, they make a mistake when two of their victims are very close to Mutant X.......
1. In the tree

**PROLOGUE**  
  
Steph is Shal's little sister. She is 17 and has the same powers as Jesse as well as being feral. Ryan is Jesse's little brother. He is 18 and has Emma's powers. They all live at Sanctuary.  
  
**STORY**  
  
Steph and Ryan are lying together in the branches of a tree on the side of Sanctuary Mountain. Shalimar walks out, eyes glowing, feral senses alert.  
  
"I can smell them around here" she said to a worried looking Jesse standing by her side.  
  
"After they stormed out last night, I'm surprised you can still get their scent," wondered Jesse.  
  
"They came back to the mountain and they're on it now" explained Shal, "now shush, I'm trying to track them".  
  
"They shouldn't have stayed away all night without telling anyone. When I get my hands on that boy..............." He trailed off.  
  
"All I can tell is that they're not hurt. I can't smell any blood, but I was able to smell the alcohol the minute we stepped outside. I wonder where they got it from?" Shal wondered out loud.  
  
"Shit, Shal, Brennan was complaining this morning that his private 'stash' was almost all gone, and was blaming me, but what if they took it? The little beggars, they're going to be in so much trouble when we find them" Jesse's worried look turned angry and he clenched his hands into fists.  
  
Suddenly Shal spotted them up in the tree, asleep together. "If I wasn't so angry this would actually be cute," said Shal to Jesse, pointing up into the tree. Shal was about to climb up the tree when Steph phased herself and Ryan through the branches, and they both landed heavily on the ground, waking up instantly.  
  
"What the.....where....but..." said Steph with a groan. Suddenly she curled up in pain, and a moment later, so did Ryan.  
  
"What's happening to them?" Shal asked Jesse.  
  
"I don't know, maybe it's just a bad reaction to the alcohol, but it could be something else, something worse. We should get them inside and just make sure they're OK." With this, Jesse put Ryan's arm around his shoulders and half dragged, half carried him inside.  
  
Steph managed to stand up, but was in so much pain that, after a few steps, she collapsed unconscious onto the ground. Shal knew she had to get her inside the mountain, so she lifted her into her arms and carried her into the lab. 


	2. Neural inhibitors

When she got there, she placed Steph onto the special non-phaseable bed, and Jesse looks at her strangely.  
  
"She phased through my arms at least three times on the way down here, even though she was unconscious. That's not a reaction to alcohol I've ever heard of, Jesse," explains Shal.  
  
"That's not a reaction to alcohol, it sounds like she's been poisoned. Ryan's power is acting up too. He just started shooting psi-blasts all over the place" said Jesse sounding even more worried than he had been outside.  
  
"What's wrong with them Jess?" asked Shalimar, sounding really scared.  
  
Jesse replied "I've been running some tests and monitoring them, and I'm still not sure, but if I had to guess, I'd say that they've been given some sort of neural inhibitor, which is preventing them from controlling their powers. If we don't stop it, they'll lose all control and they could die."  
  
"Who did this to them?" Jesse could see that Shal was getting angry as her eyes started to flash.  
  
"I have absolutely no idea, but...........Lexa!!" Jesse was cut off in the middle of his sentence.  
  
"Hey Jess, Shal, I've just had a communication from the Dominion and they want to know..." Lexa suddenly noticed the two teenagers lying unconscious, one trying to phase, and the other shooting psi-blasts out of his forehead. "Woah, what happened here?"  
  
"We don't know. Jesse thinks that they've been poisoned with some kind of...what was it you said Jess?" Shal explained to Lexa.  
  
"A neural inhibitor," said Jesse, "The problem is I don't even know how it got into their systems, let alone, exactly how to fix it."  
  
Lexa's face changed when she heard the words 'neural inhibitor' 


	3. The Dominion enters

"Shit" said Lexa, "oh no, the Dominion just called me up to tell me about some new experiment that they want us to keep an eye on."  
  
"Lexa, does that have any relevance to this at all?" shouted Jesse.  
  
Lexa gave him a cold stare before replying. "The Beard said that they gave two young new mutants a drug in their drinks last night, which would reduce the amount of control over their powers. He must have been talking about Steph and Ryan."  
  
"Well, do the Dominion know how to stop it?" asked Shalimar, obviously shocked.  
  
"That was the point of the experiment. They're trying to find new ways of controlling mutants, but they needed test subjects for the drugs, and they wanted us to capture the two 'volunteers' so that they could be observed," answered Lexa.  
  
"So they don't have an antidote then?" said Shal.  
  
Suddenly, Steph's heartbeat monitor started to flatline.  
  
"Brennan!!" screamed Shal.  
  
Brennan came running into the room, saw what was happening, and delivered an electric shock pulse directly into Steph's heart. Steph's heartbeat started to return to normal, and Brennan looked around at the others and said "Would somebody like to fill me in on what's happening here?"  
  
"They got at your alcohol. How could you be so stupid as to keep alcohol in a place where there are teenagers around? Look what's after happening!!" Shal screamed at Brennan for a good five minutes before he was able to get her to calm down.  
  
"Shal, look at me. You're angry with me because your little sister, and Jesse's little brother went to my room, and stole my drink? Come off it Shal, you know it wasn't my fault" But deep down inside, Brennan felt a horrible pang of guilt at the sight of the two teenagers lying unconscious on the lab tables. "So, what do we do now?" he asked. 


	4. Ireland

"Well I know where the Dominion scientists who were working on this thing are. The Dominion don't know that Steph and Ryan are the two mutants that they tested on, so they told me where to bring the kids if we found them," said Lexa. "It's a place in the capital city of Ireland, Dublin. A hospital in a place called Clontarf, the Beard told me."  
  
"Come on people, let's go," said Shal immediately.  
  
Brennan and Jesse carried the two teenagers out to the Helix and strapped them in, followed by Shal and Lexa with some medical equipment, needles and bandages. When Brennan looked at her quizzically, Shal said, "just in case we need it", pointing at Steph and Ryan who were still unconscious.  
  
Jesse piloted the Helix, and in a few hours they were arriving over the west coast of Ireland. Shal looked down at the Cliffs Of Moher and gasped at their beauty, their wild nature. Her eyes glowed at the turbulent waters far below. A few minutes later they were at Clontarf Orthopaedic Hospital, where the Dominion scientists were.  
  
Lexa and Jesse went in to take care of the guards and get the scientists to 'co-operate' while Brennan and Shalimar unstrapped the teenagers and gently lifted them out of the Helix. Ryan remained out cold but Steph started to wake, and let out a small cry of pain when Shal lifted her.  
  
"Shush, baby, go back to sleep, everything's going to be all right," said Shal comfortingly. But Shal was scared. She had had to wrap Steph in a special blanket, so that she wouldn't phase through her arms, and Brennan had had to cover Ryan's forehead with a metal plated baseball cap to stop him being hit by the psi-blasts.  
  
Brennan and Shal walked into the empty building warily, and jumped when they spotted Lexa and Jesse.  
  
"The doctors are all through here," shouted Jesse. "They said that they are going to have to start the procedure quickly if Steph and Ryan are to have any chance of surviving. They need to implant the two of them with a chip, which will eradicate the drug by sending acetyl enzymes throughout their nervous systems. The implants will disintegrate after their task is finished."  
  
"Are you sure we can trust these guys, Jess?" asked Shal.  
  
"Well, they just watched us take out their entire posse of guards, I don't think there's going to be any non-compliance, do you Lexa?" said Jesse, grinning wickedly at Lexa, who smiled back.  
  
"So what are we waiting for then?" asked Shal impatiently. She placed Steph down on one of the tables and saw Brennan put Ryan on the adjacent table. They then stepped back and watched as the scientist implanted both of them with what looked like small metal nails. 


	5. Byebye

When the procedure was finished, Shal asked quickly "Will they be all right, will there be any side effects?"  
  
"We won't know that until they wake up, this was an experimental drug, you know", one of the scientists remarked.  
  
"Oh by the way" said Shal, turning back to the scientists, "you can tell the Dominion that we have decided to cut all contact with them, right guys? This act against my family as well as Jesse's is, as the saying goes, the straw that broke the camel's back. And here's a parting gift."  
  
With that, Shalimar sprung into action, kicking two scientists to the floor with a roundhouse kick, then punching another in the face, and elbowing the fourth one in the you-know-wheres. The other members of Mutant X just stood back, and let Shal knock out all the scientists, one after the other.  
  
Steph and Ryan were starting to wake up as Jesse and Brennan carried them back to the Helix. Both of them opened their eyes drowsily and looked around at everyone.  
  
"Hey, welcome back guys," said Lexa, "how're you feeling now?"  
  
"I feel fine," said both Steph and Ryan at the same time. They both burst out laughing, and the rest of the team joined in after a few moments of stunned silence. They all returned to Sanctuary with Ryan and Steph feeling no pain, and once more in control of their powers.  
  
Both occasionally had a relapse, and so, were confined to the lab for a few days when they returned to Sanctuary.  
  
A few days later, Shal and Jesse walked in, looking extremely pleased with themselves.  
  
"We've decided that you are no longer confined to the lab" they said to a delighted Steph and Ryan. They then produced cleaning supplies from behind their backs.  
  
"You now have to clean it, as well as Brennan's room, and the dojo, as part of your punishment, for stealing from Brennan, drinking alcohol, and staying out all night without telling us where you were going." Steph's and Ryan's jaws dropped as Shalimar and Jesse walked out of the lab, leaving the cleaning supplies behind them. 


End file.
